2001 AMC 8 Problems/Problem 2

Let the numbers be $x$ and $y$ . Then we have $x+y=11$ and $xy=24$ . Solving for $x$ in the first equation yields $x=11-y$ , and substituting this into the second equation gives $(11-y)(y)=24$ . Simplifying this gives $-y^2+11y=24$ , or $y^2-11y+24=0$ . This factors as $(y-3)(y-8)=0$ , so $y=3$ or $y=8$ , and the corresponding $x$ values are $x=8$ and $x=3$ . These are essentially the same answer: one number is $3$ and one number is $8$ , so the largest number is $8, \boxed{\text{D}}$ .

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2001 AMC 8 Problems/Problem 2